Sarah's Key
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Polly Stone
About this listen
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
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Editorial reviews
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is the heart-breaking tale of 10-year-old Sarah Stravinsky, a French Jew, and her journey during the Holocaust in 1942. Paralleling her story is the account of American journalist Julia Jarmond, in the year 2002, who is living in France and assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv', the French round-ups in which little Sarah and her family were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The two women have a tie that binds, as Julia discovers her French in-laws have owned the apartment that Sarah once lived in since her family was removed from it. As Julia desperately searches for Sarah, hoping she was one of the lucky few who escaped death at Auschwitz, she uncovers the unspeakable horror that Sarah endured in the very same apartment - a secret that has haunted her in-laws for 60 years.
If the superb simplicity of this saga isn't enough to draw you in, Polly Stone's flawless narration will. She gives each character a distinct voice (complete with accurate accent and pitch), which lends authenticity, as if the characters themselves have come alive within her. This novel, like most accounts of the Holocaust, is weighty, ridden with horrific details. Stone's tone is subtle, letting these details ring out and strike your heart. She's also a master at building suspense, and you'll find yourself so endeared by little Sarah, that you will be white-knuckled for her during her frightening journey.
The last portion of the novel is a bit drawn out, but this is forgivable, as the denouement is touching, and Sarah's struggle is one that will stick with you long after you've finished listening to it. (Colleen Oakley)
Critic reviews
“Polly Stone's delivery of Sarah's story is riveting with its spare emotional power.” —AudioFile Magazine
“This is a remarkable historical novel, a book which brings to light a disturbing and deliberately hidden aspect of French behavior towards Jews during World War II. Like Sophie's Choice, it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever.” —Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife and The Covenant
“Sarah's Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will stay on your mind long after it's back on the shelf.” —Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights
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A beautiful Jane Doe with no memory of who she is or how she got to the bottom of a treacherous ravine; and a psychiatrist who joins her on her search for her identity. Dr. Phyl Forster was intrigued by the lovely woman who had been recovered from a San Francisco hillside and taken to the hospital where Forster was a resident psychiatrist. When Jane Doe regained consciousness, Dr. Phyl was at her side. It was then she realized that the patient had lost all memory.
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Into the dark side!
- By anya on 10-11-21
By: Elizabeth Adler
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Gold Dust
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Three women linked by their blood, their dreams...and their sins. From Leningrad in the '70s to America and London in the present day, Kimberley Freeman's new novel follows the lives of two sisters, Lena and Natalia, and their cousin, Sofi, as they move away from Russia and all they have known. Despite promising to always take care of each other, a pact to meet every winter is shattered as their lives change and long-held resentments begin to surface. Can that resentment turn to hatred? To murder?
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It's just not the same without Caroline Lee
- By Maria on 12-04-17
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Vivian Apple at the End of the World
- By: Katie Coyle
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed 'Rapture,' all that's left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers.
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juvenile
- By emily on 12-16-19
By: Katie Coyle
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This
- A Memoir
- By: Nadja Spiegelman
- Narrated by: Nadja Spiegelman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
- By Haley Abreu on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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Secret Daughter
- By: Shilpi Somaya Gowda
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Debut novelist Shilpi Somaya Gowda pens this compelling tale about two families, worlds apart, linked by one Indian child. After giving birth to a girl for a second time, impoverished Kavita must give her up to an orphanage. The baby, named Asha, is adopted by an American doctor and raised in California. But once grown, Asha decides to return to India.
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A Must Read
- By Stephanie on 06-08-11
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The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
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A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
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The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
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The Red Address Book
- By: Sofia Lundberg, Alice Menzies - translator
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The global fiction sensation - published in 32 countries around the world: Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny - her American grandniece, and her only relative - give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. In writing down the stories of her colorful past - working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the '30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War - she may help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family....
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narrator was overwrought
- By Janet L. Hamilton on 02-22-19
By: Sofia Lundberg, and others
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Half a Lifelong Romance
- A Novel
- By: Eileen Chang
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory where she meets Shijun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart. When they are reunited after many years, can they start their relationship again? Or is it destined to be the romance of only half a lifetime?
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super
- By Marcus Aurelius on 10-05-17
By: Eileen Chang
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Falling Off Air
- By: Catherine Sampson
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Robin Ballantyne's life is finally coming together. After learning she was pregnant with twins and being abandoned by her irresponsible boyfriend, Adam, she's settling into life as a single mother. But one night, after putting the children to bed, she hears an argument and suddenly, a body falls past her window. Running outside, she finds the body of Paula Carmichael, a renowned activist.
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Rich, developed and unusual
- By Hannah Coale on 02-02-05
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One Amazing Thing
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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Before We Visit the Goddess
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Priya Ayyar, Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family's situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri's own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother's choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover - but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she'd imagined.
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Absolutely Worth a Credit
- By Texastanya on 08-27-16
What listeners say about Sarah's Key
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Alexis
- 01-31-09
Haunting and Heartrending
Beautiful, poignant and often poetic, the story of Sarah, a heroic, tragic child living in a time of horror left me breathless. At the same time, the novel portrays a believable, smart and quirky contemporary protagonist who is strong and honest. I enjoyed this novel immensely. The reader does a superb job with each voice. I especially enjoyed her rendition of the contemporary protagonist, and I had not expected that at all. Well worth the time and energy. Thanks you.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Donna
- 11-03-11
This is a great read-don't understand naysayers
This is a wonderful story. Admittedly it's a bit slow getting started. And the cutting from the present to the past and back again takes getting use to; however, it is an excellent way of telling the story. Both stories are told in tandum and are wrapped up in a most satisfying way. It reminded me of a geneological search.
The book is well worth the time to read. I think those that do take the time will be very glad they did. Polly Stone, the narrator, does an outstanding job. Her accents are on point and she gives each character their own recognizable voice.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Charlotte
- 04-18-10
Great Listen !
I loved this book! Couldn't stop listening until I heard the whole story. Good job! Will definitely listen to it again. Hope to see other books on audible by this author.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Simone
- 06-13-15
Split Down The Middle
I first read this book in 2010 and I loved it! I think I even labelled it a favourite. It’s lingered in my memory for so long, I decided to pick it up again…. and I fell out of love.
My opinion this time is split right down the middle.
The storyline around Sarah was great. Still loved it. I also appreciated from the first time I read this book learning all about the Vel D’hiv Round-Up in Paris in 1942 and thanks to this book I tracked down the memorial in Paris to take pictures of it.
The rest of the book? Fail.
Because it was a re-read and I knew where the story was going and how it would end, I was less distracted by Sarah’s fascinating story and that left me able to pick apart the secondary storylines.
I did not really care for any of the characters and I found their relationships never felt real. It was all too forced and contrived, more like caricatures and less like real people. Julia’s attraction to William toward the end of the book was the least believable of all and I was never sure where it was going! Was it a burgeoning romance? Julia spoke of feeling soooooo at ease with him for some strange inexplicable reason, and their last conversation was filled with “I should have never gone there alone” and “I needed you with me” lines… If they were supposed to have had this amazing chemistry that kept them in each other’s minds for years, the author did a poor job of conveying that sensation.
I also wondered about the point of Julia’s baby storyline. It added nothing to the core story other than to provide a reason for divorcing her husband and give us a saccharine eye-rolly moment when we discover that she named the child Sarah. Who did not see that coming a mile away?
Regarding all her in-laws, I did not understand their motivations at all. “Don’t dig up the past, it’s too difficult, it’s too painful”… well… maybe if they were directly responsible for the events in the past but they were not - they were bystanders! At one point, Julia’s husband gets furious with her because of her investigation into the past, but based on what? He was not in on “the secret that needed to stay buried”, so why get irate about it being uncovered?
This leads me to my biggest complaint: Why is this even a secret? The events themselves were tragic enough and slowly discovering what happened to Sarah’s brother was very compelling. Why turn it into a secret on top of that? It’s as if the author wanted to increase the mystery by turning it all into something that needed to stay hushed up… but that was odd to me. Like for example, when we discover Julia’s father-in law had sent money to help Sarah on the condition it would be anonymous. Why? I think that was the weirdest part of all. Making up secrets just to have them.
Aside from the characters, another thing I didn’t like about the writing is that I sometimes felt like I was reading a map. “I took bus 62 to street X, then walked 3 block over to there…” It might have been fun for the author to insert navigation directions but it did not remind me of exploring Paris at all and I have been 4 times!
Regarding the narration, my hugest pet peeve was alive and well: how all Parisians sound like Inspector Clouseau. Ok, in all fairness this narrator was not THAT bad, but it always makes me wonder why bother with an accent at all. More often than not, it's more distracting than good.
(William's voice was terrible)
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anna Donskoy
- 04-08-12
Amazing story!
This was crrrazy good, and the narration was PERFECT!
I was skeptical in the beginning. I am not sure why I was skeptical. I read many books about Holocaust when I was young, and I heard many stories.. I think I was afraid to read another book, which would remind me about the cruel nature of all of us. I like to think that humankind is basically good no matter what, but then I remember Holocaust, genocide, etc., and I sometimes have my doubts.
It was interesting to learn about the French culture and what happened in July 1942 in Paris. However, I felt the book is not about the past, but about the present. The main idea and the struggle that is demonstrated so clearly in the book is the one between the opposing forces, the ones that would like to keep the present pleasant and free of past "messes" and the ones who uncover the secrets that should not be kept secrets in the first place. I just read a children's book where the character says that we should always move forward to life's messy glory.. Life is messy overall, keeping secrets do not make the "mess" go away. We must never forget.
I admire the character, Julia, for being so persistent in following the story. I loved both stories, Sarah's and Julia's. I love that Julia was able to find her voice. I think that we become better people connecting to the past. One can only find himself knowing the roots of his family, people, and country. Sarah gave Julia a voice of her own.
I love the writing, too. I thought that the language matched each character, and Zoe sounded like many kids I know. The ending was believable for me as well. Holocaust survivors did not always survive unless they had family. Julia had no one. I read stories, fictional and non-fictional accounts of the survivors ending their lives because it was too much to bear. It just proves that moving away and not talking about things, does not help, and it does not even dull the pain. We must accept and recognize the past, and I truly believe that we can never have too many books about Holocaust...
Great book!
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- Christine
- 08-21-12
More than just another European WWII Story
Sarah's Key is a beautifully written story that needed to be told. It is a work of fiction but based on some horrifically true events. It is more than another European WWII story. It is about a modern woman's struggles and self discovery.
More than anything else, it helps me to know what books a reviewer loves most when deciding on whether or not to spend my time or money on a particular book. Below I have listed some of my 5 or 4½ star books from many different genres:
Anne of Green Gables, The Book Thief, Bossypants, Catch Me if You Can, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Christmas Carol, The Clan of the Cave Bear series, The Color Purple, The Davinci Code, A Dog’s Purpose, Emma, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, A Girl Named Zippy, Glass Castle, Gone with the Wind, The Green Mile, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Harry Potter Series, The Help, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 1-3, The Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird, Let’s Pretend this Never Happened, Little Women, Mind Hunter, Nineteen Minutes, The Outlander series, Peace like a River, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Pride and Prejudice, Saving Sammy, The Secret life of Bees, Shawshank Redemption, My Sister’s Keeper, Stand by Me, The Stand, The Time Traveler’s Wife, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
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Overall
- Patricia
- 05-11-10
Historical
Brings to light the French Holocaust of which not many people are aware. The story was a little too coincidental but entertaining.
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- KEK
- 08-27-20
Tragic story
Excellent story. But narration dragged a bit. Better to have read it. A tragic plot, obviously.
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- Stacey M
- 02-16-19
OUTSTANDING!!!!
I listened to the whole book in 1 day. This is an excellent story which actually taught me something of history. I had no idea the French imprisoned Jewish people during the war, I actually did some research after I finished this. I listen to audiobooks constantly and this one is probably one of my favorites.
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- Jacqueline Nash
- 07-16-19
took me a minute to get into it
I would recommend the book it was some good information about that event that took place and it was an okay book but I would recommend it as a reed
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